Interesting Facts about your Dogs

13th on 21 interesting Facts About Dogs: Husky dogs have been banned from Antarctica since 1994.

Husky dogs have been pulling sleds in Antarctica since 1898. They accompanied Roald Amundsen and his men (above), and pulled them to the South Pole and back — the ones that weren’t eaten along the way. They frustrated Robert Falcon Scott before he died on his trek back from the pole. He preferred ponies.

In recent years, dog sleds have been used less and less, and now the last 14 dogs, kept by the British Antarctic Survey, have left the continent. The quest for ecological purity is the reason. By treaty, dogs are now banned from Antarctica, the reason being that they might introduce new microorganisms or viruses.

The last dogs made their final run across Alexander Island in February and flew out to the Falkland Islands. They are on their way, eventually, to an Inuit village on Hudson Bay, where they won’t be ecological outlaws, because dogs and their wolf ancestors are indigenous there. The 14 dogs will then continue their working lives.